Domestic Terrorism and the Religious Right
Frederick Clarkson printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Thu Dec 27, 2007 at 05:24:15 PM EST
Earlier this year, antiabortion revolutionary theocrats celebrated the tenth anniversary of the crimes of Paul Hill, the ex-Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) minister who, on July 29, 1994 assasinated abortion provider Dr. John Britton and James Barrett one of his escorts, and seriously wounding another, June Barrett, outside a clinic in Pensacola, Florida. Hill was convicted of his crimes and was executed by the State of Florida.

The festivities were called Paul Hill Days. The underground Army of God organization is now promoting a video of the celebration's reenactment of the murders.  The following post on the Army of God web site, is apparently written by AOG spokesman Rev. Donald Spitz.

For those of us who missed the Paul Hill Days, the Re-Enactment of Paul's glorious and beautiful deed of whacking that babykilling abortionist on his way in to murder some more of God's beautiful babies can be seen on YouTube...

YouTube - Paul Hill Days: the Re-Enactment  
Paul Hill is an American Hero and a Christian Hero. Paul Hill did the right thing. I'm glad he did it, he did a great and courageous deed.

I wrote at the time:  

Events like these are intended to remind abortion providers that there is a violent underground. But they should also remind the rest of society that there is an armed wing of theocratic activism, to which most turn a blind eye.

Of course, the reenactment and the Army of God's promotion of the video is part of the wider climate of terror they seek to foment -- as Moiv detailed at Talk to Action.    

Paul Hill's murder of Dr. Britton followed by about a year, the murder of Dr. David Gunn, by a deranged young man named Michael Griffin, which followed an earlier arson at the same clinic. Abortion care provider Dr. William Harrison, wonders whether the recent series of arsons in New Mexico, might be a precursor to another round of murders. It might not happen of course. But that American citizens exercising their rights to recieve and to provide abortion care even have to have that thought cross their minds, shows that terrorism works.  

Michael Griffin, who murdered Dr. David Gunn in Pensacola, FL in the first act of truly murderous violence, claimed to have been driven insane by the sermons he heard from his fundamentalist preacher and seeing the movie, Hard Truth at his church.

It makes me wonder just how long before another Michael Griffin is found to "commit murder for baby Jesus," like several have been inspired to do since Micky G. showed them the way, and so many politicians and preachers are covertly recommending it.

In my town, a year or so after the bombing of my office, the entire community began to respond very strongly to clinic violence and threats of violence. And there has been little or no antiabortion activity since 1989. But in many other localities, the violence toward abortion service providers and the women seeking their care has continued, unchallenged by the powers that be in those communities, and the violent language has continued.

Indeed. Anti-abortion activists like the Rev. Stephen Imbarrato, of the Catholic Project Defending Life (unaffiliated with the Archdiocese of Santa Fe), as quoted in the Albuquerque Tribune, often blame the victims of terrorism, not the terrorists, thus reenforcing the climate of violence.  He told the Tribune that the arsons and vandalism make his mission more difficult:

"I was very dismayed, because, unfortunately, pro-lifers get blamed for these things. It makes our lives more difficult, and it detracts from our credibility," he said....

"You have anti-abortion fanatics that get involved in these types of things," Imbarrato said. "But the real violence is perpetrated by the abortionists."

Hear that?  Bombings, arsons and murder are the fault of doctors, nurses and support staff in medical clinics. Arsons at medical clincs are not crimes so much as a PR headache for Rev. Imbarrato -- who, btw, maintains a chapel right across the street from one of the targeted Planned Parenthood clinics.

In the wake of the first arson, the Army of God said this:

Good news out of Albuquerque. Babykilling abortion mill is burned, All Praise to our Lord Jesus Christ for this wonderful deed. I pray our Lord Jesus Christ keeps the identity of these two saints from being known and their apprehension will never happen.

The National Abortion Federation notes that since 1977,

there have been seven murders, 17 attempted murders, 41 bombings, 100 butyric acid attacks, 656 anthrax threats, and 175 arsons including this most recent incident in New Mexico.

(And this was before the two Christmas attacks.)

Hello, America.




Display:
On anti-choice terrorism:
"The National Abortion Federation in Washington, DC started keeping statistics of anti-abortion disruptions and violence in 1977, for both Canada and the United States. Between then and now, there have been 7 murders of abortion providers and clinic staff, 14 attempted murders, 36 bombings, 150 arsons, 70 attempted bombs and arsons, 350 clinic invasions, 650 acts of vandalism, 100 assaults, 300 death threats, 2 kidnappings, and 330 stalkings. There have been over 3000 reported incidents of hate mail and harassing calls, 420 bomb threats, and over 14,000 protests outside clinics. Many of these figures are badly underreported, because abortion providers have learned to take anti-abortion violence and harassment for granted."

by Concerned on Fri Dec 28, 2007 at 08:13:09 PM EST

The anti abortion people have not been able to overturn Roe vs Wade.  What do you think will happen if they do and it goes back to the states?  Will there be a mini civil war?  What will happen in some states where this is strong religious groups?

by Georgia on Mon Mar 03, 2008 at 11:31:59 AM EST


WWW Talk To Action


Cognitive Dissonance & Dominionism Denial
There is new research on why people are averse to hearing or learning about the views of ideological opponents. Based on evaluation of five......
By Frederick Clarkson (375 comments)
Will the Air Force Do Anything To Rein In Its Dynamic Duo of Gay-Bashing, Misogynistic Bloggers?
"I always get nervous when I see female pastors/chaplains. Here is why everyone should as well: "First, women are not called to be pastors,......
By Chris Rodda (203 comments)
The Legacy of Big Oil
The media is ablaze with the upcoming publication of David Grann's book, Killers of the Flower Moon. The shocking non fiction account of the......
By wilkyjr (111 comments)
Gimme That Old Time Dominionism Denial
Over the years, I have written a great deal here and in other venues about the explicitly theocratic movement called dominionism -- which has......
By Frederick Clarkson (101 comments)
History Advisor to Members of Congress Completely Twists Jefferson's Words to Support Muslim Ban
Pseudo-historian David Barton, best known for his misquoting of our country's founders to promote the notion that America was founded as a Christian nation,......
By Chris Rodda (113 comments)
"Christian Fighter Pilot" Calls First Lesbian Air Force Academy Commandant a Liar
In a new post on his "Christian Fighter Pilot" blog titled "BGen Kristin Goodwin and the USAFA Honor Code," Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan......
By Chris Rodda (144 comments)
Catholic Right Leader Unapologetic about Call for 'Death to Liberal Professors' -- UPDATED
Today, Donald Trump appointed C-FAM Executive Vice President Lisa Correnti to the US Delegation To UN Commission On Status Of Women. (C-FAM is a......
By Frederick Clarkson (126 comments)
Controlling Information
     Yesterday I listened to Russ Limbaugh.  Rush advised listeners it would be best that they not listen to CNN,MSNBC, ABC, CBS and......
By wilkyjr (118 comments)
Is Bannon Fifth-Columning the Pope?
In December 2016 I wrote about how White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who likes to flash his Catholic credentials when it comes to......
By Frank Cocozzelli (251 comments)
Ross Douthat's Hackery on the Seemingly Incongruous Alliance of Bannon & Burke
Conservative Catholic writer Ross Douthat has dissembled again. This time, in a February 15, 2017 New York Times op-ed titled The Trump Era's Catholic......
By Frank Cocozzelli (65 comments)
`So-Called Patriots' Attack The Rule Of Law
Every so often, right-wing commentator Pat Buchanan lurches out of the far-right fever swamp where he has resided for the past 50 years to......
By Rob Boston (161 comments)
Bad Faith from Focus on the Family
Here is one from the archives, Feb 12, 2011, that serves as a reminder of how deeply disingenuous people can be. Appeals to seek......
By Frederick Clarkson (177 comments)
The Legacy of George Wallace
"One need not accept any of those views to agree that they had appealed to real concerns of real people, not to mindless, unreasoning......
By wilkyjr (70 comments)
Betsy DeVos's Mudsill View of Public Education
My Talk to Action colleague Rachel Tabachnick has been doing yeoman's work in explaining Betsy DeVos's long-term strategy for decimating universal public education. If......
By Frank Cocozzelli (80 comments)
Prince and DeVos Families at Intersection of Radical Free Market Privatizers and Religious Right
This post from 2011 surfaces important information about President-Elect Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. -- FC Erik Prince, Brother of Betsy......
By Rachel Tabachnick (218 comments)

Respect for Others? or Political Correctness?
The term "political correctness" as used by Conservatives and Republicans has often puzzled me: what exactly do they mean by it? After reading Chip Berlin's piece here-- http://www.talk2action.org/story/2016/7/21/04356/9417 I thought about what he explained......
MTOLincoln (253 comments)
Fear
What I'm feeling now is fear.  I swear that it seems my nightmares are coming true with this new "president".  I'm also frustrated because so many people are not connecting all the dots! I've......
ArchaeoBob (107 comments)
"America - love it or LEAVE!"
I've been hearing that and similar sentiments fairly frequently in the last few days - far FAR more often than ever before.  Hearing about "consequences for burning the flag (actions) from Trump is chilling!......
ArchaeoBob (214 comments)
"Faked!" Meme
Keep your eyes and ears open for a possible move to try to discredit the people openly opposing Trump and the bigots, especially people who have experienced terrorism from the "Right"  (Christian Terrorism is......
ArchaeoBob (165 comments)
More aggressive proselytizing
My wife told me today of an experience she had this last week, where she was proselytized by a McDonald's employee while in the store. ......
ArchaeoBob (163 comments)
See if you recognize names on this list
This comes from the local newspaper, which was conservative before and took a hard right turn after it was sold. Hint: Sarah Palin's name is on it!  (It's also connected to Trump.) ......
ArchaeoBob (169 comments)
Unions: A Labor Day Discussion
This is a revision of an article which I posted on my personal board and also on Dailykos. I had an interesting discussion on a discussion board concerning Unions. I tried to piece it......
Xulon (180 comments)
Extremely obnoxious protesters at WitchsFest NYC: connected to NAR?
In July of this year, some extremely loud, obnoxious Christian-identified protesters showed up at WitchsFest, an annual Pagan street fair here in NYC.  Here's an account of the protest by Pagan writer Heather Greene......
Diane Vera (130 comments)
Capitalism and the Attack on the Imago Dei
I joined this site today, having been linked here by Crooksandliars' Blog Roundup. I thought I'd put up something I put up previously on my Wordpress blog and also at the DailyKos. As will......
Xulon (331 comments)
History of attitudes towards poverty and the churches.
Jesus is said to have stated that "The Poor will always be with you" and some Christians have used that to refuse to try to help the poor, because "they will always be with......
ArchaeoBob (149 comments)
Alternate economy medical treatment
Dogemperor wrote several times about the alternate economy structure that dominionists have built.  Well, it's actually made the news.  Pretty good article, although it doesn't get into how bad people could be (have been)......
ArchaeoBob (90 comments)
Evidence violence is more common than believed
Think I've been making things up about experiencing Christian Terrorism or exaggerating, or that it was an isolated incident?  I suggest you read this article (linked below in body), which is about our great......
ArchaeoBob (214 comments)

More Diaries...




All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments, posts, stories, and all other content are owned by the authors. Everything else © 2005 Talk to Action, LLC.